When six young boys at Montreal’s Aberdeen School organized a student walkout in February 1913 to protest anti-Semitism, they could hardly have suspected that their actions would lead, a century later, not only to scholarly analysis but to a fes1ve centenary commemoration, a dramatic reading, and a trilingual graphic novel.

Then again, when Rod MacLeod started work on the Aberdeen School Strike research project he never expected to meet descendants of the strikers either, or witness historical characters he had come to know on paper arguing with each other in the flesh. Nor did he suspect he would find himself writing comic-book dialogue, reviewing an artist’s storyboards or helping to provoke a small culture war over which form of Yiddish would best reflect St. Urbain Street slang as it was spoken
more than a century ago.

The cottage industry that the Aberdeen School Strike Project has become
is an example of the creative ways that small-scale history can be adapted to reach readers and audiences in the 21st century. This talk revisits the process of bringing the Aberdeen School Strike to life, and describes the challenges of thinking – and drawing – outside the historical box.